Utility racks for carrying equipment and supplies are frequently implemented on motor vehicles such as light trucks, e.g. pickup trucks, to enhance the carrying capacity of the vehicle. Advantageously, such racks allow for carrying additional equipment and supplies to a job site that the vehicle would not otherwise be able to carry. Further, such racks allow a user to forego stowing relatively long supplies in a bed of their truck, which otherwise requires the use of flags affixed to an end of the equipment overhanging the bed, or in extreme cases specialized permits and/or escorts. Indeed, the rack typically provides a mounting surface or plane which is larger than that provided by the bed alone.
These utility racks are frequently used in the context of pickup trucks and/or vans. In the context of pickup trucks, the rack extends above the bed of the truck to at or above the maximum height of the cab of the truck. In the context of vans, the rack is situated on the roof of the van so as to exceed the maximum height of the van.
In either case, the height of these racks requires the user to work over their head when retrieving or stowing equipment and supplies on the rack. Because the equipment and supplies are often times quite long, heavy and/or cumbersome, such racks can lead to a safety risk that the user might drop the equipment while retrieving/stowing the same, or injure themselves in attempting to lift the equipment to or form the rack. Indeed, shoulder and back injuries are relatively frequent with such systems.
Prior designs have attempted to address these issues by providing mechanical assist systems which aid in retrieving/stowing equipment and supplies from the rack. Such exemplary systems can be seen at U.S. Pat. No. 6,874,835 to Silverness, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,297,912 to Levi, the teachings and disclosures of which are incorporated in their entireties by reference thereto. While such systems have to some extent alleviated the aforementioned problems, they have certain disadvantages. First, the aforementioned systems such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,874,835 and 5,297,912 still require a user to work over their head, or at least at or above shoulder level. As such, the risk of injury is ever present. Second, the mechanism of such systems is relatively complex, driving up the cost of the same. As a result, few consumers are able to readily implement such systems in the first instance. Third, the mechanism itself, due in part to its complexity, is relatively heavy. Once a user has loaded equipment on to the rack in these designs, the user must thereafter lift the equipment, as well as the movable rack, to lock it in place. As a result, the user is in effect not only working with the weight of the equipment over their head, but also the weight of the movable portion of the rack.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need in the art for a utility rack that significantly reduces or eliminates the risk of injury by presenting an ergonomic configuration that does not require a user to work at or over shoulder/head level when retrieving or stowing items from the system. It is also desired that such a system be relatively low cost, so that it may be readily implemented.
The invention provides such a utility rack. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.